Balancing Act Part 2 - Chakra Cleansing and Alignment

My gi-normous crystal ball and accompanying
pink quartz that asked to be rescued

Sometimes we have an emotional meltdown that no amount of chocolate can remedy.  These 'dark nights of the soul' come out of nowhere and you feel so low you that could walk under the belly of a worm wearing a top hat.  Don't hide in your closet with a tray of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls.  Instead, head for your crystals and your favorite meditation, because you, my friend, probably have a chakra imbalance.

When you are attempting to balance chakra energy the first, most important thing you can do is to ground your body's energy.  It sounds like we're preparing for a lightening strike or something doesn't it?  Hopefully it's nothing that drastic, but we are attaching the body's natural, energetic pulse to the earth.  That's the first step necessary in restoring your body's energy flow.  And here's how you do it.

Sit quietly in a chair and close your eyes.  You can play soft music if you like, or you can enjoy the blissful silence around you.  Relax.  Let the tension ease from the top of your head, down through your neck and shoulders.  Feel the muscles in your arms relax.  Your hands rest limply at your sides.  Tension drops away from your chest.  Suddenly it's easier to breathe.  Relaxation slides over you - past your hips, thighs, down your calves and through the bottom of your feet.

Now imagine pulling a thread of white light to you somewhere

Slipping into The Silence through
meditation or crystal gazing connects
you to your higher self. Your vibration lifts and
the ideas flow in.  From "OSHO Zen Tarot"©

from out in the universe.  As the light comes to you, pull it through the top of your head, into your Crown Chakra.  Keep pulling the light down through your body, along the spinal column and out through your tailbone.  Imagine taking that light and sinking in deep into the earth.  In your mind, push the light deeper and deeper until you reach the earth's very core.  Tie your cord of light to an anchor.  Breathe in and out slowly as the light continues to flow through you.  Remain seated with your eyes closed for ten to fifteen minutes, then cut the cord from the anchor and pull it back up through your body, sending the light back into the universe with love and gratitude.  Open your eyes and go about your day.

You've just completed a very basic grounding meditation courtesy of my teacher and mentor,  Linda Becker.   Linda says "Meditate ten minutes, twice a day for two weeks and it will change your life."  She's right.

Consciousness from "OSHO Zen Tarot"©
by Deva Padma

Often, a simple meditation like this one, is enough to balance your body's energy flow.  However, if you are suffering a deeper chakra imbalance, you may need to work on clearing and restoring the colors to each, individual chakra.  There are many guided meditations that can help you.  Look on line, or check for classes in your area.  For serious imbalances, I recommend seeking the services of a trained Reiki healer.  Deep disturbances in the chakras or the auric field are nothing for amateurs to play with.

Crystals are very beneficial for energy work.  Certain crystals hold specific properties for clearing and balancing chakras.  Smokey Quartz is a good, dependable grounding stone for all the chakras.  Amber is an excellent cleansing stone for them and Tourmaline and Garnet will help protect them. You can lay down and place the stones on the floor above your Crown Chakra, or place them directly on any of the chakra points on your body, front or back.  Don't pick and choose the chakras to work on, however.  If you're going to clear and ground one, clear and ground them all.

Below is a table of suggested crystals to use for balancing and restoring the chakras.


CHAKRA                                  CRYSTALS


Crown                                          Citrine, Moldavite, Quartz, Purple Jasper and Golden Beryl

Third Eye                                     Herkimer Diamond, Sodalite, Garnet, Moldavite, Lapis Lazuli

Throat                                          Turquoise, Amber,  Amethyst, Kunzite, Blue Tourmaline

Heart                                            Rose Quartz, Green Quartz, Adventurine, Kunzite, Morganite

Solar Plexus                                 Malachite, Jasper, Tiger's Eye, Golden Beryl, Citrine

Sacral                                          Orange Carnelian, Topaz, Citrine, Red Jasper, Orange Calcite

Root                                             Bloodstone, Obsidian, Golden Yellow Topaz, Black Tourmaline


Recommended reads:

"Love Is In The Earth"  by Melody
"Living With Soul - The Great Spiritual Revolution" by Linda Jane Becker
"The Crystal Bible"  by Judy Hall


LADY ORACLE

Balancing Act Part 1 - Meet Your Chakras

Energy vibration, like water, seeks its own level.  If you spend your time hanging out in the lower vibrations - jealousy, vengeance, hatred and greed - you perceive your entire existence from that vibration.  Pretty soon you're acting like a character in the revamped "Dallas" series.  Spiteful, melodramatic and clearly low-budget.  Conversely, when you come from a grounded, peaceful state and are guided by compassion, joy and love, you are dwelling in the upper vibrations.  And that, my friends, is the realm of miracles.  

Pure, selfless love, or agape, as the Greeks called it, is a vibrational pipeline straight from your Creator to you.  Once you've touched the fringes of that high, pure vibration, either through meditation, prayer, or by a method entirely your own, there is no doing back.  You're connected, and the truth and purity of that connection vibrates through you.  It is part of you.  There is no separation. 

If you've ever mediated, or worked with energy healing in any form, you are probably already acquainted with chakras.  Chakra, a Sanskrit word meaning 'wheel,' refers to any of several energy centers located in your body.  Spectrum light  emanates from each chakra, expanding outward on both the front and back of your body in a cone-shaped configuration.  This light energy swirls in a clock-wise motion.   When your chakras are balanced they direct your life force and connect you to the earth, to the Divine and to all points in between .  

Each chakra guides a different aspect of your life.  Below is a simple list of the seven major chakra names, their locations, colors and the aspects of life that they govern.

Chakra Name               Location                      Color           Area of Influence

          Crown                  top of the head              violet          Oneness with the Divine, wisdom

          3rd Eye                forehead                         indigo        intuition, subconscious

          Throat                  throat (duh)                     blue           personal power through verbalization

          Heart                   center of the chest          green         love, heart and soul connection

          Solar Plexus      stomach area                  yellow        personal power, manifesting goals

          Sacral                  just below navel            orange       harnesses creative forces, devotion

           Root                    base of the tailbone       red             grounding you in the physical body

That's how the energy is meant to flow, but like most things in life, it's not always that simple.  Chakras become congested, even blocked.  They can be too open, or not not open enough.  They can spin too fast, too slow, or even in the wrong direction.  How's that for complicated?

If you're not convinced that chakras are real, think back to the last time you had a lump in your throat.  Remember that tight ache that made it impossible to get out the words you needed to say?  Uh huh.  Throat chakra.  What about the time your one and only told you that you were no longer their one or only.    Remember how tight your chest felt?  Heart chakra.  The sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach?  Solar Plexus.  Your chakras are hard at work, twenty-four seven, balancing your life force energy even without all the drama.  

You come in contact with hundreds, if not thousands of energy fields each day.  Unfortunately, there's no vaccination against some of them and it's all too easy for your field, or a particular chakra to become polluted.  Where low vibration pollutes, high vibration clears and balances.  How do you know if your chakras are out of balance?  Usually there’s a sense of emotional upheaval, or anxiety that can’t be traced to a root cause such as a bad relationship, an illness or financial woes.  Sometimes it’s as if we’re experiencing feelings that aren’t 

our own.  When you are beset by feelings of anger, hurt or fear and you can’t attribute the source, consider this.  Emotions like fear and anxiety can also come from negative energy that leaks through your body’s own energy field and unbalances one, or more chakras.

Huh?  That’s right; and this is how it works.

Your chakras help you perceive the world, or worlds, around you.  They put out and take in energy not only to perpetuate your existence, but to help you translate energy into thoughts, emotions and physical properties. While chakras are putting energy into your auric field (the energy field surrounding your body), they are also receiving energy from the auric fields of everyone and everything around you. How you are able to handle the incoming energy determines a lot about your day. 

How do you feel when you see a basket of kittens, or puppies?  How do you feel when you see video footage of a riot? What happens to you energetically, when someone yells at you, or calls you names?  What if they praise you, or tell you how much you mean to them? All these things have an effect on your body’s energy flow and whether or not your energy stays at a high vibration or plummets to a low one.

In my next blog, we’ll take a look at using various crystals and meditation to clean and balance the chakras.

LADY ORACLE

Ramping Up for Retrograde - July 14, 2012 - August 8, 2012

Many of us view Mercury Retrograde with concern, and there’s some validity to that.  Any new endeavor we undertake during a retrograde cycle has a tendency to go a little sideways.  A vicious retrograde period can give us a whole new respect for ancient man shooting arrows at the moon to drive away dragons.  

While the basic rules for handling a Mercury Retrograde still apply, (see my blog, “Mercury Retrograde, Tarot and You”) we have some very significant differences going on with this one.  This Mercury Retrograde happens at 13 degrees of Leo which lends an air of creativity, spontaneity and playfulness.  Playfulness in a Mercury Retrograde?  Are you kidding?  Absolutely not.  It turns out that Leo is our new best friend.  

Leo rules the heart and often asks us to risk our inner-most feelings and sense of self to make positive gains in our lives.  Here’s where we return to basic retrograde rules.  Remember your ‘R’ words.  Review, research, restructure, revamp, rekindle and reconnect.  Take your ‘R’ words, superimpose them over the energy of self-expression and there you have Mercury Retrograde in Leo.  

Reconnect with a former means of self-expression - perhaps re-edit a piece of writing or redesign a quilt pattern from years ago.  Dust off projects and rework them.  You have the advantage now of time and perspective.  Use it. During this retrograde look for innovative and fresh ideas.  Create beauty around you on July 14th.

July 15th could find you with inner demons biting at your ankles.  They’ve been holding you back long enough. Perhaps you blame your partner or your parents for things that happened long ago.  Maybe a co-worker has stepped on your toes and has compromised your working relationship. Now is the time to let Saturn’s energy help you move through these resentments and take responsibility for your own life decisions.  It might be tough going at first, but you stand a good shot at driving them away and ending the stagnation that blocks your progress.  Strive to end co-dependencies.  Reprogram yourself.   Remember the expression “If you think you can’t, your right.  If you think you can your right.”  Attitude is everything.

On July 22nd, words are strong and powerful.  They can wound or heal and it’s a conscious decision on your part which one they will do.  Temper your words with others, but use a strong, clear voice in writing from your heart.  Those words are your own and are written by you, for you.  You can edit out any over-indulgences on the 24th.  That’s a good day for making informed decisions.  

Social connects and celebrations  come to the forefront on August 1st.  Perhaps you should meet up with friends, old and new at a local bistro or pub.  Enjoy a good pint of summer ale and some well-deserved fellowship.  You have seven days left in this retrograde period and you are already picking up steam.

Mercury turns direct on August 8th and if you’ve done your homework correctly through the retrograde you will hit the ground running.  The new ideas that you came up with in mid-July, revamped over ale on August 1st,  are ready to go.  August 8th’s celestial patterns promise us a stable platform to begin Leo’s creative endeavors in earnest.

In terms of tarot, the Major Arcana card for the July 14th is # 8, Strength.  Begin the retrograde with grounding meditations and a clean energy environment.  Stay focused and grounded throughout the cycle.  August 8th’s card is #12, The Hanged Man.  Your waiting period is officially over.  Get busy.  If you need further assurance of Leo creative power in your life, August 9th’s card is # 13, Death.  Transformation.  Bring on the party, Baby, because you are transforming your life by ending your old patterns and are about to give birth to your new ideas.  Stay focused and celebrate!

LADY ORACLE

July's Buck Moon or "Sky Rockets In Flight"

Not all the pyrotechnics will be on July 4th this year.  July 2012 promises to be loaded with challenges and equally dramatic rewards.   July 3rd offers us the full moon commonly referred to as the Buck Moon, or Thunder Moon.  Traditionally, horns begin to show on young male deer at this time of year; hence Buck Moon, while the alternate name, Thunder Moon, refers to the frequency of summer thunder storms.  Another popular name for our July lady of the night is, Hay Moon, referring to the first hay crop of the season.

Astrologically, the Venus Transit ended on June 27th and now it's time to implement the ideas you've carefully pondered through the transit period.  July 3rd's full moon is in the first 12 degrees of Capricorn.  Mars has left Virgo and is now keeping company with Libra.  There can be issues of sensitivity, even volatility if you have personal planets within the early degrees of Libra.  However, the aggressive quality of Mars works well with a Capricorn moon.  A Capricorn moon calls out to you to take action and create
positive changes in yourself and in the world around you. Do you have a goal?  Reach for it.  Use good communication skills to express a positive, new idea at work.  Avoid finger pointing.  Family and personal relationships can still be a little awkward right now, so concentrate on changing and developing yourself.  Come from a point of what you do want to create in your life, not from a point of what you don't want to create.  This is a powerful moon.

We are in a three year period of phenomenal growth and change due to the square of Uranus and Pluto.  You can utilize the square's power to fuel your personal development - spiritually as well as materially.  If you believe that all your efforts to make strategic gains so far have either run into massive hurdles or impenetrable walls, now is your time to rise and shine.  You are capable and you are coming into your own.

To be clear, astrologers aren't simply referring to personal growth when they talk about the power held by the Uranus and Pluto square.  They are talking about societal, even planetary growth.  The rigidity and stagnation we've been collectively experiencing is dropping farther away from us every day.  However, just as surely as we can take steps forward, we can just as easily take them backward.  It comes down to personal responsibility within our collective fate.

Living consciously means that you take responsibility for your decisions, your beliefs and the road you've chosen to travel.  It's a tall order, but frankly, I can't think of anything more challenging or rewarding.  There are no ordinary moments.  You are here, so be present, be engaged, be the moment.  If you have personal history that holds you back, meditate and release it as the moon moves into it's waning cycle.  Don't really meditate?  Then it's time to learn.

In terms of the tarot, look for the suit of Wands in your tarot spreads.  Wand energy (element of fire, creativity and action - do, don't observe) should be embraced right now, but be clear and focused on the positive.  The Page of Wands heralds a new endeavor, while the Knight of Wands carries terrific energy for your new project.   The Fool may appear, but remember, he is divinely protected as he begins his journey.  Be responsible in your decisions, but stretch the borders of your reality.

Lest I sound as if the Aquarian Age has miraculously arrived, remember that July's Buck Moon will carry a lot of energy and not all of it, stable.  It is imperative that you control your emotions and not let them control you.  Also, July 14th is not just Bastille Day this year.  It begins the next Mercury Retrograde ( see blog post on Mercury Retrograde)  period which will last until August 8th.  So get your sage ready.

As always, if you have questions or comments, leave them here or email me directly: ladyoracle56@yahoo.com


LADY ORACLE